Supporting 21st Century Competencies in Educational Settings

     Much lip service has been given to making classrooms supportive of 21^st Century technology skills.  But what exactly are those and how do educators support this?  Clearly, computers and other devices are here to stay and students in elementary school through high school need appropriate access to these devices as well as instruction on the skills necessary to build meaningful connections between the technology and their learning.  Having a computer lab in every school might have been a starting place for schools 20-30 years ago, but today one hour weekly contact with technology will not put a dent in the computer competency and technology literacy required to become a digital citizen in our global, interconnected world.  Students need daily opportunities to demonstrate and flex their computer skills, which will allow them to acquire the ability to maneuver through the basics of word processing, spreadsheet use, designing PowerPoint presentations, and navigating the Internet.

     William Pflaum in his book, The Technology Fix: The Promise and Reality of Computers in Our Schools, (2004), rightly concludes that, "technology must be a servant of content not a substitute for it,” (p.119).  In some schools this tension between which comes first can be a conundrum with a vicious cycle; in order to learn skills, teachers assign tasks on computers, but if students haven’t learned basic skills, like, for example, cutting and pasting, drawing text boxes, saving work to folders or flash drives, then these tasks overwhelm the learning experience and content takes a backseat.  Finding meaningful tasks and age-appropriate content to develop curriculum whereby computers can support the “dynamism,” Pflaum (2004, p.90), identifies as key in successful technology-literate schools can be challenging, but is the next required step in supporting 21^st Century competencies.  It is not enough to have students read their textbooks on e-readers.  It is not enough to create a PowerPoint at the end of a unit.  These are examples of what Pflaum deems as style over substance or mechanics over meaning.

     Fundamentally, computers and other technological advances work best in the classroom that is grounded in Constructivist Theory.  Constructivism holds that all knowledge is created within the learner and built upon prior knowledge and learning experiences.  This theory is related to the Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development.  ZPD is the idea that students can add to their already acquired knowledge within a certain range of new context or information, but anything that is not within that range is out of reach of their current learning potential or meaning-making ability.  It seems to me that project-based learning fits squarely into these two theories and works well with technology. Pflaum reports on biology, physics and poetry projects that have components ideal for project-based modules and assignments. 

     Designing such projects requires more engaged teachers, not less.  Just as Thomas Edison wrongly concluded that moving pictures would eventually replace teachers, it would be wrong to conclude that technology will someday render educators obsolete.  Engaged teaching is the main ingredient in successfully incorporating technology into the K-12 educational experience.  As information becomes more readily available, all the more need for highly effective teachers to show students how to filter and synthesize the vast quantity of data on a subject.  Not all data is worthy of the same attention.  Educators can help students learn to separate the wheat from the proverbial chaff. Coupling learning theory, solid content and regular access to modern computers and other technology along with project-based learning modules, educators should be establishing a good foundation for student learning for today and into the future.